MONC

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

For: The 2018 Election of the Modernist Network Cymru (MONC) Executive Steering Committee + up to two Postgraduate Representatives.

On 31 December 2017 the three-year term of the MONC Executive Steering Committee came to an end. We now invite nominations for membership of the Steering Committee and up to two postgraduate representatives. Due to the ongoing USS pensions strike action, the closing date for nominations has been extended until 23 April 2018; the online election will take place between 30 April – 16 May 2018.

Word and Image: The Second Modernist Network Cymru Conference

National Library of Wales/Aberystwyth School of Art, 12-13 September 2017

Emma West

Chair, Modernist Network Cymru (MONC)

On 12-13 September 2017, over 40 academics, curators, artists and enthusiasts gathered at the National Library of Wales to explore the connections between word and image in a range of modernist texts from Wales and beyond. The conference, the second organised by Modernist Network Cymru (MONC), had two aims: firstly, to bring together those engaging with (or making) literature and the visual arts; secondly, to bring those working on Welsh modernism into dialogue with works from other nations. The theme of Word and Image seemed a perfect way to bring together these different strands, not least because word-image crossovers seem especially pertinent to the art and literature of Wales. We could think of figures such as David Jones, Brenda Chamberlain and Margiad Evans who worked across art and literature, whether in poetry and painting or short stories and illustration, or texts such as Chamberlain and Alun Lewis’s Caseg Broadsheets, which juxtaposed modern poetry with experimental woodcuts. More recently, the photographer Aled Rhys Hughes and the Welsh National Opera have both produced multimedia responses to Jones’s prose poem In Parenthesis.

It was thus with great anticipation that the committee awaited the arrival of delegates on a stormy Tuesday morning in the National Library of Wales. Within a few minutes, the conference nerves subsided: the delegates were so enthusiastic and friendly that the area outside the Drwm was soon filled with excited chatter.

Please see below for information on exhibitions and activities taking place in Aberystwyth on 12-13 September. The Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, and the School of Art, have both arranged to exhibit materials to accompany the conference.

We’re delighted to announce that registration is now open for Word and Image: The Second Modernist Network Cymru (MONC) conference, to be held at the National Library of Wales/Aberystwyth School of Art on 12-13 September 2017.

Those interested can register via our Eventbrite page. So that we can confirm numbers with catering, registration will close on Friday 1 September 2017.

If you wish to attend after registration has closed, please get in touch with us at modernistnetworkcymru[at]gmail.com and we will do our best to accommodate you.

On Friday, May 20th 2016 Maud Ellmann is speaking on Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Townsend Warner. The talk will take place at 10am in the James Callaghan Building, Room 208 at Swansea University, Singleton Park Campus.

North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH)
International Conference on Welsh Studies

Harvard University
20-22 July 2016

The NAASWCH Program Committee seeks diverse perspectives on all aspects of Wales and Welsh culture – as well as proposals focused on the Welsh in North America – from many disciplines, including history, literature, languages, art, social sciences, political science, philosophy, music, and religion. NAASWCH invites participation from academics, postgraduate/graduate students and independent scholars from North America, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.